It looks like the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) ambitious plan of an official YouTube channel has failed to buffer in Maharashtra, as schools from the state have failed to send even a single video. Officials from city schools have hinted that they do not have the time to deviate from the regular academic and co-curricular routine.

The CBSEChannel, a first of its kind project by the Board, was launched in March with the aim to create a common platform for all 13,500 CBSE-affiliated schools. However, so far, the response has been cold, forcing the Board to extend deadlines for submissions, the latest being the end of November.

“CBSE has asked schools to submit their videos as attachments via e-mail or by post on a CD. Schools can submit videos up to 10 minutes in length, comprising of activities undertaken by schools.

These can only be based on pre-approved themes. Schools have to send a short description of the video not exceeding 45 words, that will be posted online for the viewer,” said Rama Sharma, spokesperson for CBSE.

The idea, according to Sharma, was for the Board to make itself more accessible and to make school activities more visible. There are guidelines on what kind of videos can be uploaded and a special team is supervising the process. “However, the response has not been up to the mark, and we have extended deadlines hoping to receive more videos,” he added.

After launching the channel in March, the deadline for videos was initially declared to be the end of March, which was subsequently extended to the end of September. However, the deadline approached, but the Board had not received more than 170 videos from across 13,500 schools. Most of the videos received have come from Delhi and some from Karnataka.

City school officials appeared sceptical of the initiative. “We don’t have the time for such things. We are not exactly participative when it comes to digressing from conventional academic activities,” said Kirti Sharma, principal, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Ganeshkhind.

Echoing Sharma’s views, Mrinmayee Bhave, Principal, Gurukul School added, “The regular curricular activities consume the school and the students to the fullest. There is no time for anything else.”

Battling the blind eye that the Board’s initiative has received from the affiliated schools, it continues to await video entries from schools. “Any new initiative has teething troubles. We are optimistic it will kick off given some more time,” said Sharma.

We don’t have the time for such things. We don’t participate when it comes to digressing from the routine. - Kirti Sharma, Principal, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Ganeshkhind